ROCKTON - Melena Burke caught the inbounds pass and, in the same motion, spun 180-degrees and let fly a 3-pointer that was off 6 inches to the left.

"I rushed it a little," she said. "For a second when I let it go I thought I had it, then, ah, man. The team is going to be mad at me.

"But they weren't mad. I got a lot of hugs."

Of course they weren't. Burke never had a 20-point game before. She still doesn't. The 5-foot-8 Auburn senior forward scored 30 points Tuesday against three-time defending NIC-10 girls basketball champion Hononegah. But she needed 33.

Brandi Fier scored on a tie-breaking layup with 27 seconds left and Hononegah added three late free throws to win its 53rd consecutive NIC-10 game, 60-55. Fier, Amy Dal Santo and Haley Kershner all scored 12 points for Hononegah.

The Indians (10-3, 5-0) were playing for the last shot when Fier spotted an open lane and drove for the winning basket.

"Brandi made a great play," coach Randy Weibel said. "That's why she is our point guard."

Burke, whose previous high was 19 points, and Natashalee Adames (15 points, 7 rebounds) helped Auburn lead by as much as 47-40 early in the fourth quarter. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Caryn Donahue started Hononegah's comeback.

But the real key was putting sophomore Ellie Welsh on Burke in a box-and-1 to start the fourth quarter. Burke, who had 26 points through three quarters, didn't get a shot off in the fourth quarter until her game-tying attempt with four seconds left and the Knights (7-3, 4-1) shot 3-for-18 in the final quarter.

"I was hoping she'd cool off, but she kept making them and making them and making them, so we had to go to a minus-1," Welsh said. "I kind of felt bad, but it worked out well in the end."

"We probably should have gone to it earlier," Weibel said, "but I was afraid of their other shooters. We had to make a decision because she was single-handedly beating us."

Hononegah, which played without starters Karley Kolberg (broken finger) and Tiana Thomas (hamstring), had one of its tightest conference games in 3 1/2 years.

"It's pretty awesome to have teams to compete against," Donahue said. "I don't know how (Burke) made half of those. She was amazing."

But not amazing enough.

"The points don't matter to me as long as we win," said Burke, who also had eight rebounds. "I'm just happy my team came together and we could at least give them a challenge."